The Senate's Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Committee approved this Thursday an initiative registered by the senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Francisco Manuel Fajardo, and senators Paloma Hernández and Esther Carmona, representatives of Fuerteventura and El Hierro, respectively. It requested the Government to reduce the regulatory framework for the constitution of Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organizations (OPFH) to 15 members and €100,000 in turnover.
For the socialist senator Francisco Manuel Fajardo, this improvement "will allow optimizing the sale of their crops through joint commercialization, planning the crops of their associates to adapt to market demands, reduce production costs, promote sustainable cultivation and benefit from the aid of the European Union implemented in the Operational Programs and Marketing Campaigns."
In that sense, Fajardo hopes that "these new conditions will help minimize the effects of remoteness, double insularity and reduced surface area in the primary sector of the islands on small farmers."
Currently, it is impossible for farmers on non-capital islands to meet the production requirements to constitute an OPFH, which means that there is no entity with this qualification operating and a clear disadvantage compared to competitors from other enclaves.